Experiencing My Own Bottle Shock

It's interesting that 1976 was both a year of revolution and a year to remember a revolution. For those of us living in the United States July 4th was the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.  It could be noted for the California wine business on May 24th, they declared their independence.

It was the famous Paris Wine Tasting that pitted California wines against French wines. Put together by a British wine merchant, James Spurrier, who believed that there was no way that the California wines could win.  Of the 11 judges in the event, only one was American, one British and the other nine were French.

Up until that time the French seemed to rule the wine world.  I know for my part, my first wine was a simple Mouton Cadet from Baron Phillippe de Rothschild.  When I thought of California wines I thought of the jug wines from Robert Mondavi that sat in my aunt's house.

But on that day in 1976 a bottle of 1973 Chateau Montelena set the wine world on its head. Winemaker Mike Grgich gathered chardonnay grapes from vineyards around Alexander Valley and created his revolutionary wine.  A fictionalized version of this is found in the movie Bottle Shock. 

You may be wondering why this is relevant to this blog.  I certainly didn't drink a bottle of the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay. And yet I came perhaps as close as I could to that.  In 1973, Charles Bacigalupi sold 14 tons of Chardonnay grapes to Chateau Montelena. They also picked up 20 tons from Alexander Valley grower, Henry Dick. The remaining 6 tons of the 40 tons in the original wine came from Napa Valley.

You may be wondering how I know this. It comes from John Tyler Wines and the Bacigalupi family. Recently they released their Chardonnay. They typically produce Zinfandel and Pinot Noir but they made 140 cases of their Chardonnay.

Last summer when I made my annual trek to wine country I ran across John Tyler Wines for the first time. Nicole and Katey Bacigalupi were running the tasting house and were extremely helpful during the tasting. (It didn't hurt that we were talking twins as Nicole and Katey are identical twins as are my friend Roxanne's two boys and I'm a fraternal twin.) It was one of the many highlights from my trip. You can read about it here.  

I've stayed in touch via twitter and have purchased from them several times in the mean time. So when I saw a promotion for their Chardonnay around Christmas, I thought about ordering a couple of bottles. I didn't at that point but got in touch after Christmas and ordered three bottles. 

The grapes for this wine came from vines grafted from the very vines that produced the grapes used in the 1973 Chateau Montelena.  That's why when I opened the bottle, I expected it to be good.  I didn't expect it to blow me away.

I was having my friend Billy over for dinner and since he is primarily a white wine drinker I wanted to serve him something special. In the past I had made him Salmon and didn't want to be a one note wonder so I thought about doing something completely outrageous. 

I served this wine with a NY strip steak. 

Yep. You read it right. White wine and red meat can go together. I've always thought that a really substantial Chardonnay can stand up to any food. It's true in this case. I opened the bottle and poured a couple of glasses as I finished the preparations for dinner.

The menu for the evening was twice baked potatoes, green beans and the NY strip steak.  I created a bourbon cream sauce with mushrooms. So as I was browning the mushrooms, I had my first taste of this wine. 

The first thing I noticed on this wine was the color. It was a deeper straw color than I've seen in other Chardonnays. The next was the nose as I brought the glass up for my first taste. In the tasting notes that came along with the wine, they mention stone fruits like white peach and nectarine followed by nice minerality.

If you've read my blogs, you'll know that I'm not very good at picking out aromas or specific flavors. In this case when I reread the notes on the minerality and aromas of wet stone I thought what a perfect description. I'm sure I wouldn't have noted it that way but it does describe the aromas quite well.  

On tasting the wine, the first thing you pick up is the fruit.  As I said earlier, I expected good but this wine truly knocked my socks off. Not only that, this wine more than held its own against a heavy steak meal. I even thought about opening up a second bottle when the first one was gone but then thought: 

I have to go upstairs and get another bottle. Billy's a really good friend but do I want to almost deplete my supply of this unbelievable wine? No.

Sorry, Billy. Although very different, the Chamisal Califa Chardonnay was delicious and substantial, it was a different wine. I had thought about posting this blog earlier but I needed to make sure that I had ordered a few more bottles.  I did that this weekend so I'll let you all in on the secret.

If you'd like to order some of this incredible wine, I'd encourage you to make a phone call . . . soon . . . to my friends at John Tyler Wines.  You can reach them at 707-473-0123. Tell them Mark recommended they call.

And if you miss out on the Chardonnay, you'll want to try both their Zinfandels and their Pinot Noirs. They're all excellent.